Charity worker from Bothwell is awarded MBE

A selfless and hard-working 72-year-old volunteer from Bothwell has been awarded an MBE by Her Majesty in the New Year Honours List.

Louise Kilby retired in 2009, but is busier now than when she worked full time!

Having started her working life in 1959 as an engineer in Switzerland. However, Louise soon realised that her talents lay elsewhere.

She returned to Scotland and immediately started her nursing training at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, where she eventually became the senior nursing officer.

During her lengthy career she was responsible for setting up one of the first child development centres in the country in conjunction with Yorkhill Hospital for Sick Children.

Her voluntary work with children and their parents has been a constant in Louise’s life and she still looks after her own disabled niece to allow her carers some free time.

For 20 years she ran the Ruth Mosley Memorial Fund founded in memory of her sister who died aged 44.

Until 2012, when a serious cycling accident left her with a broken pelvis, a fractured skull, and in a coma for 12 days in Ninewells Hospital, Louise took part in the Cycle Scotland Challenge to raise funds for a number of children’s charities.

Louise said: “I feel younger now than I did 20 years ago, so this volunteering is definitely worth doing.

“I’ve been asked many times what keeps me going, and I think my best answer is always going to be that I enjoy doing what I do.

“And I’ve been very fortunate in life too. I had great parents who took an interest in what I did, supported me and set me up well for later in life.

“I get incredible pleasure out of helping others less fortunate, and it keeps me in touch with the younger generation and technology, which is no bad thing.

“It’s a huge honour to be awarded an MBE, but there’s really a bit of every volunteer in that award.”